Mike point of view

Me, Gina and Sophia had walked into the quiet room, Sophia sat down in the corner of one of the sofas, and pulled up her knees, then I saw the holes in her jeans, so I went to get the first- aid- kit. Afterwards I sat down in the sofa in front of Sophia, I took up paper balls and disinfections from the first-aid-kit, and poured the fluid on the paper.

"This is gonna sting a bit," I said before I put the paper ball to the ripped skin on Sophia´s knee. But she didn´t even blink. She was soaking wet of sweat, her hair laid flat against her head, and her cheeks and eyes were red and swollen of tears. Gina reached out her hand and pulled away the long hair- bangs, that were hanging down in Sophia´s face.

"I am not Sophie" Sophia mumbled again, and sniveled.

"We know that babes," Gina tried to comfort. "But… you know… if you told us who Sophie really is, and why you´re so upset, it would be easier for us to help you yeah?" Sophia nodded slightly. And then took a deep breath, before she started talking with a shaking voice.

"It… well, I guess it all started… when I was," I counted on my fingers… "about nine or ten years old…. I´m not sure how it started, the government pretty much kept that as secrets, but, then, this… war… I guess, it started… and… well, you know!" Sophia now seemed really nervous. "And well, my family… and our neighborhood, have more… well, things and money, and food and stuff, that most other families in Lulei has. And… well, then… one day, a… a bomb, it… it went of in the neighborhood… and… my brother ran into the kitchen, and pulled me and my sister Sophie down under the table… but when it went off, the roof in our living room, slash, mine, Sophie´s and our brothers´ bedroom came in. And mum, dad and Aaron was in there…. The biggest wall came down right on mum, who was holding Aaron, four years old And… well, I guess it crushed them. Dad was hurt too, but lived."

Sophia point of view, flashback

"GET DOWN" Luce ran into the kitchen, and pulled me and Sophie down under the heavy kitchen table.

"WHAT´S HAPPENING?" Sophie panicked, she had barely finished the sentence, before there was a loud BOOM, and the ground started shaking, as of an earthquake. Both I and Sophie screamed, but the sound of our screams drowned in the boom of the bomb, and we could hear the roof in the room next to us, coming down. I tried to get up to run into the room, where I knew mum, dad and Aaron were. But Luce pulled me down again, and he held his arms around me and Sophie, for another minute or two. Then he slowly crawled backwards to the floor where he could stand up, he helped me and Sophie up again as well, before the three of us ran to the door to the living room. I pulled the door towards us, and then jumped over all the rest of the walls and roof that was on the ground.

"Dad." I could hear Luce say and I turned around. He lifted a board of the collapsed ceiling, dad coughed, and croaked.

"Areen… Aaron… they were in here."

"MUM." Sophie shouted ad jumped over some boards to get to, what seemed like most of the living room wall, one of mum´s hands was seen under the boards. Together, I, Sophie and Luce managed to lift up most of the board that was holding mum and Aaron down. Immediately, Luce sat down on his knees, and felt on mum´s neck for a pulse, then he checked Aaron´s. Then he laid his hands on his knees, before sighing. He turned around towards us again, and slowly shook his head.

"No… NO." When Luce took a step forward to embrace me and Sophie. Hold us in his warm, big hug, as he always did, I screamed, and tried to come to mum, but Luce put one of his arms around my chest, and kept me from her.

"No, Sophia." He said calmly. "There´s nothing you can do… They´re…"

"They´re not dead." I shouted. "THEY CAN`T BE." I stopped when I heard Sophie sobbing behind me, I pulled Luce´s arm off me, and then embraced Sophie. Luce embraced us too, for a minute or two, and then he went to check on dad.

Mike point of view

"And when we came out in the street… all of the houses down the street were in pieces, and there were hurt people… and dead bodies… everywhere."

I can´t put in words how sorry I felt for Sophia at this time. Only a complete blind person would not be able to see the pain in her eyes, though I knew she was trying so hard to hide it. No one should see what she had seen, and lost people that she needed, when she was not even a teenager at the time.

"Then…. Well… you may be wondering why I refuse to say my brother´s name… the police is after my brother… my other brother… the one who pulled me and Sophie under the table… and… well, I maybe can tell you, but you can´t… you can´t tell anyone else, not even if they´re asking."

"Sophia," I bent forward and took her hand in mine. It was so small in my big hand. "You´re safe here, you telling us your brother´s name, it´ll change nothing, and of course, we won´t tell anybody."

"It´s Luce." Sophia almost whispered, as if she was afraid that if she said it out loud, someone that was listening outside the door or the window, would hear.

"Well, my brother… Luce.. he, he helped children and teenagers to get out of Gota, to save countries, like, Great Britain, Ireland, Scandinavia, and the rest of Europe who hasn´t got a war going on. Of course it was good, but he kept it a secret, because if the police and the government found out, they would want to kill him, literally, and then, they found out, Luce got to know about it, and he ran away. About six months before I got here, and then… the police came to our house…and then… they shot dad, I and Sophie heard the shot, but didn´t care much about it. Then they came into the house, and then, they asked me and Sophie were Luce is, and we told the truth, we didn´t knew. When we said that, one of the gunmen said that they´d already shot our dad; Sophie tried to run outside to get to him, and… I…" tears were now streaming down Sophia´s face. "I tried to stop her… and then… a shot rang out… and she just fell… and then, they asked me, and then… they shot me. The last thing I can remember is trying to wake Sophie up, and a man from the neighborhood running into our house… The next thing I remember, is ending up here." Sophia stopped talking, and it went all quiet.

During my many years as a care- worker, I´d heard loads, and loads of tragic stories. I had helped loads and loads of children to get over their tragic past, but never, never had I heard anything, not near Sophia´s tragic story. And I knew that there was nothing I could to fix her.

So, well, I´m satisfied with this, I really am, what do you think?